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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Supt. 1964
290/€
I should like to begin by putting the labor situation in textiles and apparei in perspective.
The United States economy in recent years has experienced a strong rate of growth--some of it inflationary. Total employment has continued to rise and unemployment by our standards has been comparatively low.
Our civilian labor force in August of 1969 was over 82 million persons.
Little less than 3 million were unemployed
over 80 million were employed
Dispite this level of prosperity there are serious problems within the economy which effect the work force.
Too many people are under-employed or have substandard income.
We are spending over $2 billion dollars a year in manpower programs designed to bring more people into the work force and lift them from the level of poverty in which we find them. These problems are most serious with respect to certain minority groups:
Negroes
Mexican Americans Spanish Americans.
Puerto Ricans, etc.
A good many of the problems related to poverty, unemployment and minorities are concentrated in the urban centers where the levels of unemployment or underemployment have created very serious social problems. The textile and apparel industries are important factors in dealing with these problems of poverty and the disadvantaged.
Let me illustrate:
In August 1969, the overall unemployment in the United States was 3.5% (compared with the Japan rate of 1% or less). The unemployment rate in the U.S., by certain population groups differed markedly from the 3.5% overall unemployment rate. For example the unemployment rate:
among whites was
among Negroes
among teenagers (16-20)
3.2%
6.5%
.12.5%
25.0%
among Negro teenagers
Many of our social problems arise from these groups.